


Unholy Land

by ForeverFlamingFire



Series: Return to England [1]
Category: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Genre: Anger, Comfort, Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 20:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4113391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForeverFlamingFire/pseuds/ForeverFlamingFire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens to Will and Djaq after Robin and the rest of the gang return to Sherwood</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unholy Land

**Author's Note:**

> For the purposes of this story, Marian is still dead, but Carter survived the fight that breaks out in the season 2 finale

“Will!” Will came running out Bassam’s house. Djaq stood in the middle of the road. Her short dark hair ruffling in the breeze that swept through Acre.

“What is it?” asked Will.

Djaq kept looking down the road. Will followed her line of sight. After spending two years living as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest in England, it was nice to live in a place where such worries were beyond them. Now though, as Will watched the men come closer, he was glad for Robin’s instance that he learn something other than the axes he so obviously had a knack for. Will saw the men riding towards them across the plain.

“Ready?” asked Djaq spinning her sword into the _en garde_ position. Will nodded.

“What is going on?” asked Bassam, coming from his home.

“Bassam, get back inside,” Will ordered.

“What is going on?” Bassam asked again.

“Inside. Now,” said Will.

“Will… Djaq…” Bassam started, looking from one to the other. Neither turned to face him. They looked straight out into the middle of the road.

“Bassam, get back inside,” said Djaq.

“Will you please…?” Bassam started again.

“No.” Will interrupted. He didn’t turn to Bassam, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the road. “There is danger coming. I don’t know what to tell you other than that. I can’t tell who the people are. All I know is that we are the only protection you have with Robin and the others having returned to England and King Richard, Carter and the rest having moved on from the their camp. We can protect you, but you have to go back inside.”

“Very well,” said Bassam. He turned, heading back inside.

Djaq let out a sigh of relief. She paused, looking at the men galloping towards them, becoming clearer with every minute that passed. “Do you know truly not know who these men are?” she asked.

“No, I don’t,” said Will. “I do not recognize anything about them.” He paused. “If Robin were here, maybe he could tell us, but he’s not. We have to defend ourselves, defend Bassam, defend Acre.”

“You can’t hope to accomplish such a thing, Will.”

“How many times did people say Robin couldn’t do something? How many times did he succeed?”

***

Will and Djaq watched the men approach them. They stayed silent, watching the figures growing larger. The men arrived. The men moved from their horses fluidly, rushing at Will and Djaq. Usually when there was a girl in the vicinity, natural inkling was to get her away from the danger. Will felt none of that fear with Djaq. He knew she could hold her own in any fight that was thrown at them. She had proved herself to him back in Sherwood.

“Will!” Djaq screamed. Will was thrown from his thoughts by Djaq’s voice. One of the men had taken advantage of Will’s distraction and had been about to launch an attack on him. Will threw himself into the melee, Djaq following him.

Will lost himself in the fighting. He put all his attention towards the task at hand. He felt the light graze of a sword against his shoulder and whirled out of the attack he had been parrying. He threw his weight behind the lunge, startling the man who had launched an attack from behind. Will slashed the man’s arm with a sword, then whirled back to his original attacker and embedded an ax in their chest. He looked toward Djaq, watching her fight off one of the men. He heard something behind him and turned to face them. Before Will could stop the man in his tracks with his other ax, the man had engaged his sword.

Will fought back against the man. Since he’d been in the Holy Land where axes were a rarity, Will had taken to the sword. He’d learned the basics of the weapon in England, but rarely put it use. The same went for the bow and arrows he’d hidden in the house he now shared with Djaq. He’d also switched to the sword out of necessity. The Holy Land was a mass of desert. He’d heard bits of what it looked like from Robin and Much, but hearing the stories and seeing the desert stretching out before him was a different matter entirely. There were no trees in Acre and the little there was could be put to better use in building houses than providing weapons to the Europeans.

The man was startled when Will attacked him was ferocity. He tried to get away, but Will had spent enough time watching the rest of the gang fighting their attackers with swords in moments of rest, that he’d picked up a few things. The man now attacking him wouldn’t stand for it. He whirled away from Will, trying to attack him from behind, but Will whirled to face him, batting his sword aside. The man and Will met each other’s eyes, and the man ran see the ferocity building behind the calm exterior. The man running didn’t stop another one from attacking. This one Will had seen as he’d made the first movement. Will attacked in a flurry, killing him.

Will looked over at Djaq. She was holding her own.

“European!” a man called. The word was in a language Will didn’t understand, but Will got the message. It was the man who had run away from him in fear. Behind the man was another. Will looked at the two men before him, waiting for them to attack. After a few moments of nothing, Will made the first move.

The man was startled. Will drove him back away from where Djaq was still fighting. He broke away from the man. The man attacked him. In the distance, Will thought he heard a scream. He shoved it from his mind. As much as he loved Djaq, wanted to protect her, he knew she could hold her own and he had his own problem in front of him. Will and the man faced each other, swords pointed at the other. The man was taunting him in the mysterious language again. Will could only imagine what the man was saying, but from the bitterness in the man’s voice he thought Will was a Crusader. Will didn’t bother trying to correct him, he just looked the man in the eyes, giving him signals that he wasn’t about to leave. That they would have to fight this out.

The flow of unknown words stopped, then the man cursed and attacked. Will deflected the blow. The man stumbled, nearly falling, but rose again and turned. He launched a second attack. Will deflected, then he attacked. The ringing of their swords fell flat in the desert landscape, not echoing the way Will was used to. This place wasn’t the place he was used to. He was enjoying learning about Djaq’s culture, truly he was, but he didn’t think he’d ever get used to not hearing the echo of fighting the way he had for twentysome years. Their swords clacked together, bringing Will back to the present. His focus became the man in front of him. The want, the need, the drive was still there. He felt for the strength in his core, using it to back the stronger man up, driving him back into the desert from whence he’d come. They looked each other in the face, trying to see what made the other tick. Will might have read too far into the man, but living the way he had for the last two years had made him wary. He saw something in his attacker that didn’t sit right with him. Something that was worse than what he could see from the surface glances he’d been giving the man in between bouts. The man pointed to a spot behind Will. Will knew the trick, having used it himself. It was an amateur move and one that would’ve made Robin give anyone in the gang if they ever used it where he see. Will fought down a laugh and the need to look for Djaq. He took advantage of the raised arm and stabbed him. His sword sliced from the left armpit across the man’s chest, through his layers of black clothing. Despite the blood spilling from the deep gash, the man attacked again. Will slashed his right arm, twisting away from him. Will spun behind him, stabbing him through the back. He fell face down in the sand. Dying from the sand clogging his nose and mouth and the blood pouring from the wounds inflicted.

Will looked away from the man’s body. He resheathed his sword. The movement made him wince and he noticed the cut on his left arm for the first time. The pain left again when he looked up. Djaq was lying on the ground. Both the man she’d been fighting lay beside her. Their unmoving forms made Will almost certain they were both dead. Ignoring the men dressed in black, lying still with their blood soaking the golden sands, he ran towards the group.

“Djaq!” He screamed, throwing himself down in the sand beside her.

“Will…” She murmured.

_No, this can’t be happening._ The voice was fierce in Will’s mind. He had not come to the Holy Land just to see the woman one of his best friends loved die and then to watch to happen to the one he loved as well. It had been bad enough when it had been Marian. He scooped her up, holding her in his arms.

"I love you,” he murmured.

“I love… you… too.” Her voice was soft and if he closed his eyes then they were back in Sherwood Forest.

Blood bubbled up and overflowed onto the sand. The scarlet drops flecked his clothing as well from his own injuries, the kills he’d made and now as Djaq lay dying in his arms. They both knew there was no hope. Not without skilled physicians being present. So Will sat there, holding her in his arms, the two of them waiting for the inevitable.

She shuddered. Will tightened his grip. Her body relaxed, going still. Will lowered his head over her body, grief rushing through him.

***

“Will?” The voice drew Will away from Djaq’s body in his arms.

“Carter?” asked Will, voice rough. “I thought you were dead.”

“Injured, but alive,” said Carter. He paused, looking at the blood stained ground, at the bodies of the men Will and Djaq at killed, finally resting on Djaq’s body in Will’s arms. Carter knelt beside Will. “I know I’m not Robin or any of your other friends, but I can help you.”

“Carter…” Will murmured. Carter wrapped an arm around Will.

“I’m not going to lie and tell you it’s going to be all right.” He paused. “You have to let go of her, Will.” Will shook his head furiously. “Will.” Will jerked away. “Let me help you. I can help you, Will. You don’t have to do this alone.”

“I want to go back. Back to Sherwood.”

“I can help you with that, too, but first let’s get you out of here. If there are anymore of these men and you stay here, they’ll be sure to find you.”

Will nod. Carter gently removed Djaq from Will’s lap, then helped Will stand. He shifted. His face becoming blank, his stance stronger. Carter lifted Djaq into his arms and they set off across the desert in unspoken agreement to the place where they’d buried Marian.

Unlike Robin, Will wasn’t surrounded by his friends when he and Carter buried the woman he loved.


End file.
